Swizz Beatz Says J. Cole Was A "Young Mentor" To Him During "Poison" Sessions

"I'm not too cool where I can't have a young mentor, being as I'm a young OG."

Swizz Beatz is gearing up to release his forthcoming album, Poison which serves as his first album as a lead artist in eleven years. He's been teasing the project for a minute. What makes the project so exciting is not only some of the features on the project but the fact that J. Cole will serve as a co-executive producer on the album. In a recent interview with The Fader, Swizz Beatz revealed how that came about.

J. Cole is set to serve as a co-executive producer on Swizz Beatz' forthcoming album, Poison. Although Cole doesn't have as many years under his belt in the rap game as Swizz Beatz, the producer revealed Cole's mentorship on the project helped him gain a clearer vision of what he wanted to execute on the album.

"He played the role of young mentor to me. I'm not too cool where I can't have a young mentor, being as I'm a young OG." He said, "One time, I was playing him songs from the album — before I had all these different sonic elements to the album, before separating them into four boxes."

Swizz remembered showing Cole some of the tracks on it before the "ATM" rapper said, "That's the record. The other records you're playing me, they're huge, but I don't think you need it." And I'm like, "Are you crazy?"

"I was caught up in the wrong things, and even though I would feel it wasn't the right time when I was playing those other records, it didn't matter because I was coming back. He assured me I didn't have to do that," he said. "Even with not shooting expensive videos: They’re well done, and I came up with the concept of no treatments, up-close-and-personal, with the artists in their elements. I ran that past him, and he was like, ‘Yes!’ Why shouldn’t he get that credit when he brought so many gems to the table? My generation needs to learn how to get along with the new generation anyways.”